


Land Down Under

by SassyLassy



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Post-Omnic Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 02:32:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9362108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyLassy/pseuds/SassyLassy
Summary: A child lost and alone in the outback.A hermit who's lived the land her entire life.The world is over, the Omnium has been destroyed, and so has the outback.What happens now?





	

She stood on the rocks, overlooking the distant horizon. Once the Australian sunset was a gorgeous sights of purples, reds, yellows and the beautiful rich purple of night. Now however, everything was a murky dust cloud of disgusting orange. Ever since those idiots had blown up the Omnium plant, the beautiful land she had been born and raised on was forever scarred. The beauty was gone, ripped away, and left a shattered, littered mess in its wake.

In such a short amount of time Australia was changed. How long ago had the explosion happened? A few months, at least. She remembered the first attempts at help coming. The government sending assistance, but how quickly that stopped. Was it financial? Did they just realize that what had become of these people weren't worth it? Maybe they were a lost cause from the start.

Sighing she scratched at her arm pit before turning and heading back towards the caverns she'd called home for a long time. It was so deep it had its own water source, which she used to catch fresh fish in. And right now, food that wasn't irradiated to Hell was more expensive than water. 

She was just rounding some outcropping of rock when she heard it. A motorbike. Immediately she pulled her shot gun off of her back and held it, ready, listening to see if the approaching bike was going to stop. It got closer, and closer... before it drew away, getting fainter. Sighing, she lowered her shotgun and shook her head. Last thing she wanted around here was a--

_"No come back!!"_

The sudden voice had her immediately pull the shotgun out again. She did it instinctively even before she realized how young the voice was. A child's voice. Why was there a kid out here? Clearly alone, if they were screaming for a biker to come back, a possible junker even, told her that the child was all by themselves.

"Get back here!!" the child's voice was angrier now, and by the time she rounded behind the rocks she finally saw the kid. What a filthy thing they were. Messy blond hair sticking in all directions with caked on mud, dried blood, and dirt smothered all over their sun-burnt face and clothes. Well, what clothes remained. A filthy t-shirt that was faded and torn, shorts that may have been pants at some point? No socks or shoes. Looked like they hadn't been bathed since... well. The explosion.

"You lost, kid?" she asked at last, seeing the instinctual fear in the child as they flinched. They turned to look at her, eyes orange and defiant. Those small hands formed fists, the kid looked half ready to either burst into tears or into a frenzy of rage and anger. Hard to read.

"No." they lie, it's in their eyes.

"No? So where's your home? Your folks?" she approaches slowly, but despite going slowly the kid backs away. Folding her arms over her chest, she holds herself back, not wanting to freak the kid since she didn't want a screaming, crying child on her hands. How old was it anyway? It was impossible to tell. When was the last time she'd even seen a child? Quite a while. Being a hermit does that to you.

"I 'unno. None of your business!" such a defensive child for someone crying for help not a minute ago. Looking over them more, she noticed how skinny they were. Were they hungry? Starving? Possibly.

"Feisty. You'd have to be, to be out here." she says with an almost proud smile. "So, you got a name?"

"Not tellin'." the child retorts.

"Oh?" she asks.

"That's personal, 'n you're a stranger." they explain, before tears began to prick at the corners of their orange eyes. "Pa 'n Dad told me not to talk to strangers or, or tell them things..."

She almost felt sorry for the little brat. Their dads were either dead, or had ditched them in the middle of nowhere and took off. Either way, the kid was now alone, sun burnt, starving, and covered in filth. "Look kid. The world isn't the same any more. Your parents aren't here. I'm the only one here, probably for miles. Let's hope so, at least. Things are dangerous, but you can't go thinking you can manage this alone. It's not safe. Not for me, certainly not for you."

The child stood there a moment longer, sniffing as snot began to dribble down their lips to their chin. They promptly wiped it away with their burned arm, hiccupping. 

"Well if you're not going to tell me your name, I'll just give you one." she said at last, unfolding her arms and approaching the child. "So do you want that?"

"Ya can't just go name someone!!" the child said, looking as if their world had just been spun upside down. 

"I can."

"Olivia. M'name's Olivia but.. but I got a nickname." she looks down at her exposed feet, toenails caked with mud and dirt, and dried blood. "Rat. Dad... called me Rat."

"What a nice man." she smiled. "You want me to call you Rat, or Olivia?"

"Rat."

"Alright Rat." she held a hand out to the kid. "Come with me and I'll get some grub in you. Maybe clean you a bit too, you're looking a little crusty."

The small hand quickly grabbed onto her outstretched one. "What's your name?" Rat asked, curiously.

"Don't got one." she answers. 

"What? Didn't your folks give you one?" Rat asks, now seemingly a well of questions and curiosity.

Already she was beginning to regret this, but she walked with the child named Rat. "Don't need one out here. It's just me, and that way when I die nobody'll disturb my sleep by speaking my name. I want peace and quiet when I die, kid. Not a bunch of people saying my name while sobbing like babies."

Rat was quiet at that, eyes trailing up and down the woman in silence. She had such dark skin, darker than chocolate. Hair as black as night and eyes even darker. She wore nice colours, blacks, reds, yellows. And she had a tattoo on her arm too; it was done in white dots! Like connect the dots! For the first time in a while, Rat smiled, and pointed at the tattoo. "That's a kangaroo!"

"Know your natives, do you?" the woman asked.

"Mmm! Kangaroo, koala, plat-platypus, wallaby, wombat, bilby, possums, all sorts of... of. Mar-soup-eels." Rat detailed, counting on a hand to ensure not a one was forgotten.

"Marsupials." she corrects. "They're called marsupials, and they used to be all over these lands once."

"Really?" the child perked, eyes brightening. "I never seen a kangaroo before!!"

"You won't now. They're all either dead from the explosion, or already hunted to nothing by the crazy locals. I haven't seen a kangaroo for over a year, and they used to be everywhere." she may be telling hard truths but better be honest with the kid up front than fill her head with ideas of seeing a kangaroo. 

Which was a shame, since the lazy bastards had been such a large part of her own childhood. How they'd laze about in the sun, chewing away, and her memories of watching the red kangaroo males fight for dominance was seared into her mind. But the local wildlife had suffered from the explosion, and the aftermath. What had once been lush and full of life was now dry, empty, and dangerous.

At least this kid had somehow survived. She was super curious though, how had they wound up here? She had a good knowledge of those in the area, the farmers, the stock handlers, but she hadn't known any couple with a young child. But she had the strong indication that asking would upset the child. 

"You live in a cave?" Rat asked, as they approached the red rocks, and the gaping cave entrance.

"For now. I move around a lot, well. I used to." she explains as then unhooks her torch, switches it on, and begins to lead the small child down into the darkness. "This place is pretty safe for now."

"How long will it be safe?"

"I don't know."

She again saw the fear in the child's eyes and it reflected her own, though her own was hidden behind many walls. Quickly she had learned how to mask how she felt, to hide the fear, because fear out here could eat you alive and spit out what's left over. Fear had her friends abandon their homes when the Omnics attacked, and again when the omnium exploded. Now there was a wasteland but it was still her home, still her people's home, and she wasn't going to go running for anything.

Reaching out, she tentatively places a hand onto the child's shoulder.

"But we're together. Two's better than one."

The messy child smiled and there was a small twitch to the corner of their eye. But it was a smile, and in this world that was worth a lot.

[To be continued]

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if trans-Junkrat is not a headcanon you put much thought into, but I felt it was a necessary addition to this story as it's a headcanon I personally buy into a lot.


End file.
